Fri Feb 04, 2011 at 09:00

I have some sad news. After nearly four years in operation, today will be the final day Open Left publishes new content.

The site will not disappear, and all published content will remain online, but after today we will cease producing new content.

As the people who founded the site, myself included, moved on to other projects, we have gradually run out of money to maintain operations. It is a difficult decision, but we kept going for as long as we could.

I am, and always will be proud of the work we did here. I am, and will always be grateful to everyone who supported, visited, and participated in the site.

No matter what, the inside-outside fight we engaged for progressive change at Open Left will continue in other venues, even though this blog is about to close. The movement is much bigger than one blog.

Farewell posts will run throughout the day. Thank you, so much, to everyone.

Thank you so much for giving us this great venue and this extraordinary community of thinkers, idealists, and believers in the progressive cause. Today is indeed a sad day, as the lights at Open Left go out. But our commitment to the cause will never die. Thanks again!

If teaching is so easy, then by all means get your degree, pass your certification test(s), get your license, and see if you can last longer than the five years in the classroom 50% of those who enter the profession never make it to.

Since you created it, this has been my favorite stop on the web. Lately we have awaited the Left Ed post every week more than any other feature anywhere. I want to know where everyone will be posting in the future. Also, where is Stoller now?

Thanks. Good idea. If nothing else, perhaps we can figure out what to do next.

Cheers,

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." -Woody Allen, My Speech to the Graduates

Your voice, and Matt's, were my constant companions throughout the dark days of the Bush presidency. You gave me hope, taught me a lot, and offered a path forward as we monitored and tried to influence the subsequent elections. It was a tremendous ride and I love you for it. Heather

Keeping something like OpenLeft going is neither easy nor cheap, I know, and I'd guess that none of you intended to give up what you were and are doing to become full-time publishers, at least not on a permanent basis. Ave atque vale, is probably the best thing to say to you all at this point. You've done a good thing, and it's been deeply appreciated by those of us who've taken advantage of the opportunity you've given us here to speak our minds.

Even after OpenLeft is history, we'll keep an eye out for all of you. You can be sure of that.

I guess that your traffic is down. I bet that your ad revenue is down a lot. I know the pay to the "staff" is terrible. I know Soapblox is to be run by Warecorp.

All that added together is reason enough to close. I once "worked" for a hippie/radical underground paper called the San Francisco Express Times. When the original energy that made the paper into a success was ready to move on, they effected a name change to the San Francisco Good Times. I always assumed that it was out of pride for the quality of their work that they did not expect to see duplicated by the next wave of writers and artists. But at least they left the resource intact after they moved on.

What I am suggesting is that you just let the blog run itself.

Will what little ad revenue cover Warecorp costs? Are there other costs? Could that be covered as well?

Then spread the administrator-type duties widely and let the blog run itself. You all then post every now and then when the mood strikes. Eventually the blog will reach a minimal level of stable readers and revenue.

But to see if that is realistic you need to "open your books" as it were. Put your money (if there is any) where your mouth is, "Open" Left.

Openleft has been by far my favorite site on the internet since i stumbled upon it in 2007. I may not have been an often commentator, but i've been reading almost everything and will truly miss this site. I have gotten a much deeper understanding of movements and motives here than anywhere else. Wow i'm just really shocked, even though there was enough warning signs. So my biggest question is, where can we find you guys now? Even if I have to go to lots of different sites to read all of your thoughts it would be really nice if you could point me to which sites those might be.

Thank all of you guys for the great work, and i hope you go on to become an even greater voice in the public than you are now. The world could sure use it.

OpenLeft will leave a void... Starting with Chris and Matt, it had a perspective and a voice that was never replicated anywhere else. Sad to see it go. Thanks Chris, Matt, David, Paul, and everyone else for your work.

Onward.

"I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that."
-Lawrence Summers

This was the first place where I felt safe enough to post under my own name. So, for that, 'thank you, falettin me be mice elf again!'

Do tell us where we can find you frontpagers. I need me my Rosenberg fix.

I've often thought that OpenLeft might have had more traffic if the diaries had carried more importance in the scheme of things. Frontpagers and quick hits got most of the action, and diaries, it seems from the start, were almost an afterthought.

I followed Chris Bowers from MYDD to here (I'm also a fan of surrealist poetry) and am sad to see it shut down.

Is it running costs? Some exiles from MYDD, followed by new adherents from DKos, have been running a soapblox blog for a while on minimal running costs, though it is very much a joint collective effort, with no one person in charge.

It maybe a bit too eclectic for many here, since it has several independents and even some centrist republicans posting.

If anyone is in search of a home where serious debate is more important than flaming or intramural personality politics, please feel free to join up and reshape the place

I have no words, only much sorrow. Recently, I have been aware of wondrous changes in the site. My hope for expansion soared. I felt that together, we each had grown and gained from the wisdom within Open Left pages.

I dream of brighter days and bolder, more brilliant beginnings. May provocative prose flourish in other fields. I hope writers here will be the buds that bloom elsewhere and everywhere.

It is only the giving that makes us what [who] we are. - Ian Anderson. Jethro Tull . . . Betsy

Thanks for creating the voice and good luck with future ventures.
(4.00 / 3)

This isn't one of the places where I found the most love and agreement, but it was a place for people to speak and that is always valuable. Kudos for putting it together and kudos to everyone who has contributed to it over the years.

-best

-chris

"A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are for. Sail out to sea and do new things." - Admirla Grace Hopper, Computer Pioneer

I've been here since day 1; commenting sometimes, mostly reading the site pretty religiously -- like 4-5 times per day. I am just so crestfallen to see the news that OpenLeft is shutting down. OL truly has been the only must-read site in my rotation. Best writers, best content, best discussions.

While it's not a substitute for the organic whole that is OL, perhaps a listing can be made of where to find all the front-pagers, before new content stops. I'd especially like to be able to read Paul Roseneberg somewhere.

Thanks for all that you guys have done keeping this thing going. I am by no means exaggerating when I say that I think that OL has been the most important political blog on the left side, since its founding in 2007. I know it's been the most important to me by far.

I suspected this day would come once Bowers left. Paul was the chief reason to come here after that. This place gave me the will to leave DKos because it was so absolutely wonderful. There were great quantities of intelligence, good analysis, and faith in making things better.
Mazel Tov, Bowers, in getting married, although this is very late.

Darkness has a hunger that's insatiable, and lightness has a call that's hard to hear.

What an unpleasant way to start the day! I originally got into OpenLeft because it was the perfect size. Big enough to have good conversations but small enough each individual really could contribute something. While some were like me, just random dudes at the computer, an amazing percentage were true activists actually accomplishing something in the real world.

That was back in the Bush days, were every liberal site more or less agreed with every other. Bush sucked.

With the primaries and the Obama presidency, though, OpenLeft really found a unique place in the blogosphere. It never fell under the Obama spell. It dissected and explained his failures while at the same time defended him against attacks from the right.

The folks here, front pagers and everyone else, really pushed me out of my comfort zone from time to time. For that, I thank everyone. I tend to think of myself now as a "recovering neo-liberal". I still think many push it too far from time to time, but that just makes the conversations interesting and valuable.

With the primaries and the Obama presidency, though, OpenLeft really found a unique place in the blogosphere. It never fell under the Obama spell. It dissected and explained his failures while at the same time defended him against attacks from the right.

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." -Woody Allen, My Speech to the Graduates

Maybe print up a bunch of archives, then set it on fire and send it to sea.
(4.00 / 2)

If I were an animator, I suppose it could be done digitally. Then again, the idea of digital Irish Whiskey doesn't really appeal either.

It was just a thought. I'm both part Irish/English and Norwegian, so at least the urge for both should be understandable.

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." -Woody Allen, My Speech to the Graduates

Of course, the Viking funeral thing wasn't realistic. Here in Cali, it would take 3 months to get permission from the Coastal Commission, so it wouldn't be very timely. But I still like the idea!

Happy Hour is easily more feasible and probably more enjoyable as well ;^)

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." -Woody Allen, My Speech to the Graduates

First of all let me thank the crew for running such a wonderful site. This has been one of my favorite sites for it's smart political analysis. It looks like part of the reason it is going away is because this lead to some of you to be able to move on to bigger and better things. This is well deserved and I congratulate you.

This obviously leads to the problem of finding an openleft alternative. Does anyone have any suggestions? I go to Kos, but I want real analysis, not "Democratic Party! Rah! Rah! Rah!"

Have you considered giving the site over to fans so that they can attempt to keep it going?

As the people who founded the site, myself included, moved on to other projects, we have gradually run out of money to maintain operations. It is a difficult decision, but we kept going for as long as we could.

can you elaborate please?

is it that the writers don't want to do it anymore? or that that they can't? I can understand that. it would suck, but I would understand. but it sounds more as a money problem. why not do fundraisers? I think fundraisers were more frequent before. now it has been a long time since the last. I mean if the only reason is money, it would suck.

This is the site I have consistently gone to for in-depth rational explanation and discussion from something other than a right-wing view. My habit has been to quickly check TPM and Steve Benen for the immediate news and then OpenLeft to understand what it all means. I really hate losing OpenLeft.

I'd like to thank all of you who have been publishing here for providing us such a great source of information. I'd especially like to thank Paul Rosenberg for contributing so much to my education. Paul, you have sent me to the library more often than most of my university teachers ever did.

Apart from the issue of not now having a progressive community blog I'm motivated to participate in, I'd like to know that Paul is going to continue publishing somewhere in the lefty blogosphere.

I know Stoller and Bowers both have access to well-read blog platforms anytime they want them (Stoller at Naked Capitalism and Bowers at Kos), but I'd really like to be assured that Paul is going to find someplace to continue publishing with a community that keeps him inspired to keep up the incredible productivity...

I also agree with the commenter above about the value of Open Left's smaller size. I spend a lot of time thinking about what I read here and trying to communicate well when I participate (lots of QHs lately), and I just do not feel motivated to engage that much on the larger blogs where one comment drops into the void of snark and one-offs. Maybe it's time to just go silent.

The MSM has tagged Independents the party of swing-voting 'centrism.' If Democrats no longer represent your liberal values, show America there is still a Left by registering for another left-aligned party.

but I know from personal experience that it's hard to keep a blog going and keep a day job at the same time. I appreciate all of you and will miss OpenLeft, but adrift progressives are welcome to check out The Progressive Populist blog. and contribute if you wish.

Good luck to all and I'm sure we'll see Chris, Mike, Matt, Paul et al. around.

by this news. though an outsider, i truly enjoyed visiting open left daily and reading all of the interesting and well thought out post. more importantly for me, this was a place where I can learn about others and myself. i really appreciate the opportunity i had in writing my comments in spite of my beliefs. thanks to all of you.

As one of the first blogs I started reading, and as a place where I got my online organizing start doing volunteer work for Matt, Open Left has played a formidable role in my personal life beyond the irreplaceable role it played in our collective politics.

I was just beginning to feel my way around as a blogger and especially on my local political community as well as national politics and this is where I landed to post. I'm still going to call you "Home" ... you will be sorely missed

I'm not at home, and I just logged on (late in the A.M. Pac time) to see this news that OL is ending. I've been here since day one, and this is a place I have come to depend on daily for good information and thoughtful analysis.

Well, thanks very much to everyone who contributed - writers and commenters alike. If this is truly the end of OL, then I'll miss most of y'all a whole heck of a lot. If we bump into each other somewhere else, please be sure to say hello.

- The one time my friends, my heroes, my community need me the most and I'm too broke, financially, to be there for them.
- The one time our country needs balls on the ground leadership the most, our chosen representatives smugly choose to neither lead nor represent us.
- And at one of the most crucial times in our history when the citizens of this failing democracy need most to hear the truth to save it from itself, those leaders we once chose now collude to drown the truth and us in a dead sea of red, white and blue propaganda.

As much as I'll miss you all, as I miss so many others including Olbermann, it's painfully clear to me anyway that we've focused/wasted our time and money trying to energize a dead dog.
It's time to bury it, retreat to our hidden labs, regroup and meet up later with..a pack of Progressive Cyborgs in DLC clothing maybe...?

Nationalism is not the same thing as terrorism, and an adversary is not the same thing as an enemy.

Wishing you guys luck in future endeavors. So sad to hear this news, but happy that you're continuing to fight. If I had to pick a "favorite website ever" this would be it. Going to miss you and all of the regular comment crew. Thank you thank you thank you.

OL has been a consistent read for me since you guys started it Chris. It will be very sorely missed. Best of luck to you and everyone involved. You did good and the world is better for your efforts.

If teaching is so easy, then by all means get your degree, pass your certification test(s), get your license, and see if you can last longer than the five years in the classroom 50% of those who enter the profession never make it to.

This has always been one of my favorite sites, a longtime mainstay on one of my browser tabs (the first one on the left, of course).

I haven't posted much lately, due mainly to increased involvement in local commitments, but I've continued to read, digest, and absorb. This was THE go-to site for adult, intelligent discourse -- not just from the front-page posters, but also from many of the contributors in the comments.

Thanks to all of you!

"We judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their actions. It is a great convenience." -- Howard Zinn

who posted on this site. This was my favorite political blog, and I am very sad to see it go. But you are all very intelligent, compassionate people, so I am sure I'll be seeing you around in the future.

I wish the best of luck to everyone here in whatever endeavors they wish to pursue.

"He, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing."--Socrates
(formerly DavidN)

Docudharma recently almost folded, but fans of the site took it over, and kept it afloat. Perhaps the OL community will do likewise, say in a smaller way, by keeping the Quick Hits part going.

I'll link to my comments at Docudharma around the time they were thinking of shutting it down, because they apply in this situation, also.

I realize that many people's real, main attraction to a blog is the sense of some kind of a political home, and I don't denigrate that, per se. Nor do I denigrate those whose main attraction is intellectual stimulation. This is certainly part of my motivation in reading blogs.

However, I'm disappointed in the blogosphere, in general, for it's glacial pace into evolving into a launching pad for political organization. Even many things that are seemingly obvious and/or simple, that could at lease serve as plausible democratic experiments, aren't much talked about, much less attempted.

I trust that those who seek mainly an online community will find another, eventually. I wish I had such a level of confidence for those whose primary motivation in participating in a blog, is to inform and complement their attempts at radical reform of dysfunctional 'government', accomplished as efficiently as possible, but unfortunately, I can't. Even so, I would challenge those so inclined, to persevere in seeking out such a community.

it is not acceptable that this 'club' dissolves - and IF it is only about 'money' - the problem is easy to resolve. I am willing to spent 30$ a month for 'the progressive company' of the people I met here.
So we only need another 150? people who are willing to spent the same amount. There are over a hundred posters here who want to stick together - and I realize some might not have the money - so let's find a way -(as anonymous once wrote) - to get the dough.

Let's organize it like a real company. The 30$ are 'shares' - an investment in a site which soon will show all the other lefty sites what's what. To start - we need a headliner - I vote for Paul. He draws a salery. We then need as strong as a particpation as the reaction to the closing of Open Left. That shouldn't be a problem because with having a 'share' - everybody will be much more involved (in creating a interesting site - finding more shareholders etc etc)

Blogging as usual will not be enough - So we also have to get more into problem solving and act more like a 'think tank' -(even if we hate the word) - Huff is pretty clever and -(for example)- by helping 'people' - to think through the dilemma with their 'underwater houses' they helped themselves for example creating lots of 'traffic'.
That doesn't mean we should be into 'traffic' - I always loved the idea of a small 'elitist thinking blog' - where (after a while) - people (hopefully) will beg to become a member -(and if they can afford it - pay much more than a 30$) -

So it's very easy - and entirely up to y'all!
We just need about 150 'club members -(cancel the membership of your dogclub instead) - and then we will be able (again) to discuss all kind of things and I can bitch about it -(I need that!)
For example - I am very curious lately - if you can get rid of a dictator without doing so much damage to (ourselves) - 'the people' - and so I take the 'freedom' to post this suggestion on all these ByeBye posts -
Make it fly???

I was one of the refugees who followed Bowers and others here from mydd (which I can clearly see is also about to fold). I always found mydd (from the 2004 to 2006 period) one of the best political websites around and found the same level of quality at openleft after the fracture of mydd and the resulting descent into mediocrity of that site. I will continue to see you all at dailykos at elsewhere, but still....it's been an incredible run here, and I will miss openleft.

When I first spotted Whitney Houston on the telly, I just had to enjoy her skill and fashion sense. Every time I see this artist on the telly, I glue my eyes to the TV screen. She's definitely fabulous.